Should the NBA Play in Tournament be Permanent?

With the remainder of the NBA season being played out in a bubble last year due to the pandemic, the NBA gave teams a chance to make the playoffs with the use of a Play in Tournament due to the shortened season. 

Last year, if the ninth seed were within four games of the eighth seed, the two teams would play with the ninth seed having to win two consecutive games, while the eighth seed only had to win one in order to make the playoffs. This year the NBA brought this concept back, but they expanded on it. Now seeds seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth will play in the tournament in each conference. Seeds seven and eight will play each other and the loser plays the winner of the ninth and tenth seeds game for the eighth and final playoff spot.

Last year, this was a great concept because teams missed out on games due to the shutdown in the middle of the season. However, this year, teams have all been scheduled to play 72 games (down from typically 82 games), and while some games have been postponed, the teams in the Play in Tournament have all played around the same number of games. 

The Play in Tournament should not happen again. The format of the tournament itself can be seen as somewhat of a punishment for teams that have played better than others this season. 

via Steve Dykes/USA TODAY Sports

The Golden State Warriors and the San Antonio Spurs are currently the ninth and tenth spots in the Western Conference. Let us say hypothetically the Warriors beat the Spurs and the Warriors play Trail Blazers who are the seventh seed at the moment. With the way that the tournament is currently set up, if the Blazers were to lose to the current eight-seeded Grizzlies in the Play in Tournament, the Blazers would be forced to play a hot Warriors team in order to make the playoffs, despite entering the tournament as the seventh seed, a spot that would be an immediate lock in any previous year. 

While Portland has a better team than Golden State, all it would take is one Curry explosion for Portland to miss out. And keep in mind that Curry dropped 62 points on Portland earlier this season. Now we will have a team with a better record than both of the seventh and eighth seeds out of the playoffs due to the way that the tournament is structured. 

Or imagine if you are Charlotte, and you end up having one game to get into the playoffs and you must go up against Russell Westbrook and Bradley Beal, even though Charlotte is currently three games up on the Wizards.  With the way that the Play in Tournament is currently set up, we will constantly see situations similar to these.

Luka Doncic spoke up about how the Play in Tournament is not fair to the teams. Even though I personally think he was only talking against it because his team was the seventh seed at the time, he did raise a good point. What is the point of playing 72 games if you could end up losing your spot in the playoffs by losing two games in a row?

The Play in Tournament was a great idea for a one-time thing given the situation that the entire world was facing with COVID, but to have it be a permanent thing moving forward will just be rewarding the teams who would otherwise miss out on the playoffs.